CHAPTER VII 



The English Setter 



N the preliminary history of the spaniels we expressed the 

 opinion that although the pointer had been the recognised 

 dog for use with the gun before the setter became his rival, 

 there was no doubt that many sportsmen made use of 

 setters to shoot over, preferring that dog, even if it was 

 hardly considered correct, and from these beginnings the dog speedily 

 became as prominent a gun dog as the pointer. We may assume that this 

 growth of the setter began about 1775 and by 1800 was fully established, 

 and that at the latter period there were not only the setters developed 

 from the setting spaniel by gentlemen who took pride in their kennels, 

 but plenty of half-bred setters and pointers, droppers as they were called, 

 and also that almost any spaniel, so long as he was a good working dog, 

 was used by men who cared little about good looks or type and wanted 

 something useful. 



That state of affairs is to be found as preliminary to the establishment 

 of all breeds and the meeting of rivals in competition for judgment. As 

 illustrative of this we need not do more than look at the first volume of the 

 Stud Book issued in 1879 by the National American Kennel Club, not the 

 present ruling body but one more interested in field trials than in dogs in 

 general. This volume contains the registrations of fourteen hundred dogs, 

 of which 533 are English setters of pure breeding; 260 Irish setters, also pure, 

 and 135 Gordon setters; pointers number 165, while 65 spaniels of various 

 kinds and Chesapeake Bay dogs make up the total. In this volume there 

 is a division for " Cross-bred and other Setters," at the head of which there 

 is this note of explanation: "Owing to the indefinite character of some 

 pedigrees it was impossible to decide to what breed certain dogs belonged. 

 They are therefore included in the present class, under the head of 'Other 

 Setters' to save discarding them altogether. In this section there are no 

 fewer than 260 entries. And these were not dogs owned by a lot of nobodies, 

 but by men of recognised position in the sporting-dog world, such names 



